


The Difference a Bit of Sky can Make

by DoctorTrekLock



Series: Resolution19 [19]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, But...like...the alternate canon, Coulson Lives, Fake Hydra Steve, Gen, HYDRA Reveal, Hydra (Marvel), I'll tag it later, Spoilers for Endgame, and then people talk about it, uh...stuff happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 15:05:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18640537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorTrekLock/pseuds/DoctorTrekLock
Summary: He hadn't had a headache this bad in seventy years.MAJOR ENDGAME SPOILERS





	The Difference a Bit of Sky can Make

**Author's Note:**

> Again, this fic contains **MAJOR SPOILERS FOR ENDGAME**. Now, carry on.
> 
> Prompt: The universe where Hydra thinks Cap works for them and Cap knows Bucky’s alive. (It’s the same universe where they save Loki.)  
> Source: ImprobableDreams900  
> Title: "Sky Seasoning" by Shel Silverstein
> 
> Originally posted on April 28, 2019 on [Tumblr](https://doctortreklock.tumblr.com/post/184519466597/the-difference-a-bit-of-sky-can-make-april-28)

He hadn't had a headache this bad in seventy years.

Steve groaned and pushed himself off the ground. "Wha'?"

"You feeling alright, Cap?" It was the archer, Barton. He was crouching next to Steve, just over an arms length away, watching him intently.

"I...think so?" Steve blinked hard at the pain in his head and slumped over to sit on the ground. He rubbed the bridge of his nose firmly, hoping it would negate some of the throbbing centered between his eyebrows. "My head hurts like a dickens, though."

Barton didn't look remorseful. "That was Natasha. Cognitive recalibration." Steve's confusion must have been evident, because Barton's lips turned up in amusement. "She hit you really hard on the head," he explained. "Or, rather, she hit your head very hard on the ground."

"Why would she do that?" Steve looked around himself at the wide marble bridge covered with shards of glass. He remembered. Two shields ricocheting, Peggy's photo in a compass, _I can do this all day_. "Wait! There was another one of me!"

Barton's eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "Yeah. You said you found Loki. And the scepter went missing, so we figured you might have been hit with it." Barton rubbed his chest absently. "That's why Nat slammed your head into the ground a couple times."

"A couple?" Steve asked, aghast.

Barton shrugged. "You have a very hard head. It seemed better safe than sorry."

Steve decided to leave that alone. "Hold up. What do you mean the scepter's missing? I thought SHIELD had it?"

"Sitwell said he gave it to you," Barton said slowly, alarm overtaking his face.

"I never had it." He was starting to get a very bad feeling about this. "I was with you guys the whole time, then I ran into another me carrying the scepter. And before you say it was Loki, trust me. It was me," Steve said firmly, pushing the memory of a voice in his ear whispering "Bucky's alive" to the back of his mind. He didn't have time to have that breakdown right now.

"Well, shit," Barton said tiredly. "And here I was looking forward to a nice quiet evening with shawarma."

\--

"The Secretary said to make sure you're up to speed on the Project." Steve looked over at the man who had sidled up next to him in the SHIELD lunch line.

"What? What are you talking about?" Steve wasn't sure who the man was, but he'd seen him around with Rumlow. His name was Watts, Wheeler, something like that; Ward, maybe.

W-something balanced his tray with one hand and grabbed Steve's arm with his other, leading him towards a deserted table in the corner of the cafeteria. "Exactly," he winked.

Steve still had no idea what he was talking about, but before he could say anything, the man leaned in closer and whispered "Hail Hydra" in his ear.

Steve froze. His eyes darted around the lunchroom, but no one else was looking at them. Hydra was gone. It had fallen with Red Skull somewhere over the Atlantic. But... _Cut one head off and two more will take its place._ If Hydra had survived... If they thought _he_ was one of them... If he could learn about their next move...

Wilson was watching Steve expectantly, so he swallowed hard. "Hail Hydra," he whispered back, the words catching in his throat. _Dancing monkey_ , he thought. Time to play the part.

Wren relaxed at the phrase and motioned for Steve to sit next to him. "Now," he leaned in near Steve. "Let me fill you in on Project Insight."

\--

The city was still in shambles around them, but none of the Avengers were helping clear rubble. They were all in Stark's remarkably intact workshop, watching in horror as Stark's computer unearthed layer after layer of SHIELD's secrets.

After learning about the millions of lives Hydra was planning on ending under SHIELD's guise of "freedom," Steve had headed straight for Stark Tower. Since the plan for shawarma had been scrapped, the team had held a brief meeting to compile their long list of questions and short list of answers. It had ended with frustrated sighs and an invitation from Stark to stop by anytime, since "It's not like I'll be getting much sleep anyway." Though the man's words still lurked in the back of his mind ( _Everything special about you came out of a bottle_ ), he had come through for them during the Battle. Steve wasn't sure what Director Fury's game was, but there was no way he was telling anyone at SHIELD about Hydra without more information. So he'd gone to the billionaire's half-destroyed skyscraper for help.

Stark was muttering things like "there goes another firewall" and "you'd think Fury would have gotten better security after the last three times I hacked his system, but nope!" while his computer projected classified files into the air. Barton and Romanoff watched the files go by, adding context and commentary to each secret as it was revealed. Barton kept getting paler and started fingering one of the knives in his boots, while Romanoff grew more and more still, tension drawing her posture taut. Thor and Banner watched from the sidelines, observing and providing moral support. Steve just watched as the optimistic future he'd been hoping for was revealed to be rotten to the core.

Barton winced as Stark's computer showed another connection between a SHIELD agent and the growing web of Hydra they were constructing within the agency. "C'mon, Garrett," he muttered. "Did Singapore mean nothing to you?"

It was Banner who asked what none of them had yet been willing to. "What are we going to do now? We can't just leave it like this."

Romanoff held herself so tightly, Steve was afraid she might snap. "Hydra will need to be excised, one agent at a time. We'll have to be carefully about it to stay off their radar and keep SHIELD from falling altogether."

Steve wasn't sure saving SHIELD was necessary at all, but the timeline on Insight was at least two years out, so there was time to do it right, and SHIELD wasn't _his_ organization.

Before he could voice that, Barton continued. "If only Coulson were here. He's the kind of guy you'd want sneaking around taking down Hydra agents in the middle of the night." He looked wistful at the prospect.

"Yeah, about that," Stark drawled, frowning a little at his holograms. "Maybe not so dead after all."

Pandemonium ensued.

\--

Four days, $18,000 in medical equipment, three disguises, one awkward conversation with Lou from the second floor nurses' lounge, three taxi fares, two minor miracles courtesy of Freyja of Asgard, and one favor owed the Norse god of mischief for being such an excellent distraction _in absentia_ later, Phil Coulson was watching the assembled Avengers with bemusement from his pile of ridiculously expensive pillows in the safety of Stark Tower's thirty-second floor.

"Please go back. You want me to what?" The atmosphere in the room was positively giddy, bordering on manic, and Steve could feel Barton grinning like a loon from just behind him.

"Recover, so you can take out the web of Hydra agents currently posing as SHIELD," Steve repeated politely.

"Right," Coulson said. He traced his eyes over each of them, a faint smile tugging at his mouth. His gaze lingered a little longer on Barton and Romanoff before landing back on Steve. "When should I start?"


End file.
